Habitat Construction

In the midst of looking for a job, I have been trying to stay busy during the day 1) Looking for a job and 2) Staying involved in my community. Yesterday I had the opportunity to go with a friend to work at Habitat for Humanity in West Dayton.
The last time I worked at a Habitat site was in high school, and even then I probably only volunteered half a dozen times. When Gina and I pulled up to the site there were about 5-6 men sitting outside the house on a lunch break. Gina and I kinda exchanged thoughts on how this wasn't exactly what we were anticipating, but we'd give it a try anyway! Upon introducing ourselves, we learned that 1 of the men was a contracted electrician, three were from a volunteer group called 'Catch the Spirit', and 1 of the guys was a habitat employee, Keith, who has been in construction for about 20 years.
We were there in the afternoon from about 12:30-4 and I think Gina and I both had a really great time. I learned several new things about construction.
The first is what is called a 'Crow's foot' marking.
This is kind of lengthy - but it is a very imforative description of what a crow's food mark is:
A crow’s foot is a v-shaped mark that forms a vertex or V-shape. The point of the V designates the point to be marked (whether for a cutting or positioning)



In many circumstances a crow’s foot is better than a single line, because the point of the V marks where you draw a cross-line that intersects the V and divides the wood or other material. If you are simply drawing a straight line initially, you might end up with an intersecting line that is not straight. The crow's foot prevents that by dictating only a single point in which the intersecting line is meant to be drawn through.

I used a construcion 'square' which is a special type of ruler to mark the intersection of the crow's foot for where to cut the piece of wood. The raised lip that you can see in the picture is held flush against one side of the wood while you use the ruler edge to line up where you want to draw your intersecting line through the V of the crow's foot.






I also got to use a power saw to cut about 8 eight pieces of wood. One of the pieces I cut too short. Keith had told me we needed a piece that was 40 3/8". Instead I cut a piece that was 38 3/8". Thankfully Keith is used to working with unskilled laborers, and was very kind about my mistake. I was able to mostly rescue the piece as I needed another piece later that day to be cut at 37 3/8" so I only ended up wasting an inch of the 2x4 through my mistake.

Two other terms that I learned were 'light' and 'heavy' in reference to measurements. Instead of saying 12 inches and 7/16 of an inch, you can say 12 inches and 3/8 of an inch, heavy.

This simply means 12 inches and 3/8 of an inch, plus 1/16 of an inch.

Or in the case of 3/8 of an inch, light, it would be 3/8 of an inch minus 1/6 of an inch, meaning 5/16 of an inch.

By the time I finished nailing (with some assistance) some 2x4's above the stairs (they were being used to form the floor of the attic) - I was able to do a pull-up from one of the boards that I nailed in. It was a test to see if my construction skills had worked - and I passed the test, haha. Thankfully for my safety, too. :)

I always like helping out with Habitat because of the long-lasting impact you have. I like helping to provide food and clothes as well to people - but there is something unique about helping to provide a permanent structure for somebody - an escape from the elements. You know that if you come back to a building site in 50, 60, 70 years - God-willing - that house is still going to be there, and you were a part of making that happen. That is a very good feeling.